A packed Douglas County courtroom was silent as a nearly four decade-long cold murder case came to a close on Thursday afternoon.

Michael Jefferson, 67, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and was sentenced to 32 years in prison — the maximum number of years asked for by prosecutors for the crime, minus 1,382 days for time served.

Jefferson was in his late twenties when a Douglas County businessman Roger Dean was shot and killed in front of his home at 8266 Bighorn Court. Jefferson is now stooped, with grey and thinning hair. He listened to half a dozen people who asked for him to receive the maximum sentence of 32 years.

23rd Judicial District Judge Victoria Klingensmith expressed her sorrow for the pain the Dean family has endured.

“I know you have been waiting 39 years for today,” she said.

She apologized for the delays in the case. 

Dean, 51, died when a masked man approached him as he was enjoying his morning coffee in his Lone Tree garage on Nov. 21, 1985. The suspect led Dean at gunpoint up the stairs, where his wife Doris “DJ” Jean Dean was taking a bath and demanded $30,000. Prosecutors said that Jefferson wrapped DJ Dean with duct tape and brought Roger Dean into his daughter’s room.

He did not have the cash, fought back and was eventually shot five times on his doorstep. He collapsed and died in the gutter of his cul-de-sac.

Five years later, Dean’s widow was the victim of a series of failed extortion attempts. DJ Dean received numerous letters demanding cash. After several failed attempts to catch the suspect in the act, no money was ever exchanged.

Jefferson was arrested in 2021 when advances in genetic DNA technology found a hit on his brother, Cedric. The transfer DNA was recovered from an orange ski mask the murderer wore on his head, which he left at the scene along with a backpack full of supplies – duct tape, a knife, and rope.

According to the affidavit, the ensuing investigation revealed that Jefferson lived in Colorado in 1985 and had a criminal history in Denver. He also was involved in a relationship with an employee of Dean’s and may have surmised her boss was wealthy and ripe for the picking.

Tamara Dean Harney, Roger and DJ Dean’s daughter and last remaining family member, struggled to keep her composure as she asked for the maximum sentence. Harney talked about the sadness of her life without her father. Her mother committed suicide in 2020 just seven months before Jefferson was arrested.

The Dean family suffered an earlier tragedy when their eldest son, Troy, was hit by a train and killed a year before Roger Dean was gunned down.

Harney described her father as a tender man who loved to dance and who was so thrifty he would get upset if he lost a quarter in a slot machine. And her voice cracked as she remembered how much she missed her father the day she got married.

“I never knew the why but I finally know the who,” she said.

Jefferson said he is not guilty of Dean’s death. He was arrested in April 2021 after living a life on his own for more than three decades, even raising a family and holding down a variety of jobs, including one as a pharmacist’s assistant and another as an investigator with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies.

His attorney, Michael Faye, said Jefferson wanted to go to trial.

“I lose sleep over taking the plea. I know Michael (Jefferson) does for sure,” he said. “He is very much adamant that he didn’t do this. If this was up to him, he would turn this into an exoneration hearing.”

Faye added that there was no motive, no evidence Jefferson was ever near Dean, and he never had affiliation with the victim.

“There were alternate suspects,” he said.

In asking the judge for the minimum 16 years in jail, Faye described Jefferson as a “peacemaker in jail” and a person who worked his entire life for his business and his children, only to lose it all.

Jefferson was arrested when Colorado Bureau of Investigation forensic scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods verified a DNA transfer on the ski mask. The murderer also forgot to take a duffel bag, which held duct tape and a knife.

Woods, the forensic scientist who made the match, had been found to have intentionally deleted, altered or skipped steps in her testing and conclusions in hundreds of criminal investigations across Colorado dating back to 1994, throwing into question the outcome of an unknown number of past criminal cases.

Judge Klingensmith received 20 letters from doctors, family and coaches on Jefferson’s behalf, but he was the only person besides his attorney who spoke for himself at the sentencing.

“I can only imagine their hunger for justice and closure,” Jefferson said of the Dean family. “That is something I would feel, too.” He adding that he hopes his plea would bring a sense of justice and closure.

A crucial eye-witness who was 9-years-old when Dean died was one of the witnesses at Jefferson’s sentencing.

Carly Gibson, now a mother herself, was so overwhelmed by the intensity of the courtroom that she nearly fainted and people rushed to help her regain her breath.

“I witnessed the murder. I became a victim,” she said.

She told the courtroom about her anxiety after deputies discounted her insistence that the suspect she watched speed away in his car was a Black man. The police report referenced a White man, which she called “inaction of deputies.” Her life has been altered because no one believed her. 

“Mr. Jefferson became my own personal bogeyman,” said Gibson.

Former Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock, just a deputy at the time of the murder, apologized for that and for keying in on Dean’s wife and daughter early on.

“We spent too much time looking at DJ and Tammy and not looking at the true killer,” he said.

Gibson wiped her eyes as Spurlock addressed her about the deputies’ mistakes.

“Somehow, somebody somewhere decided to look through her window and say, ‘No, that’s a white man,'” he said.

The homicide case happened so long ago that the investigation encompassed the tenure of five Douglas County sheriffs.

Jefferson’s adult son, Julian, came up to Harney after the hearing and told her congratulations.

“I’m happy for you.”